4 and 1
by acommontater
Summary: A series of AU shorts.


1. Friends In A Coffee Shop.

He comes in every Monday at 7:15am on the dot.

Blaine's friends make fun of him for his unabashed crush on someone he doesn't even know, and yeah, maybe it's a bit stupid to take the early shift on Mondays just to get a few minute glimpse of a gorgeous guy, but it's worth it.

He lives for those few seconds on days when he gets to man the register and gets to actually talk to Him. He always takes extra care when writing the swooping corners of His name on the cup, the crisp syllables clacking pleasantly against his tongue.

This goes on for months- Blaine pining after a guy he was to scared to actually talk too. He can be charming when he needs to, but He makes Blaine all giddy and bubbly and he just can never think of anything to say in the moment.

And then one day, He walks in with a tall, model-built man, with swooping hair to match His, on His arm, the both of them laughing and smiling as they wait in line together. Blaine feels his heart deflate like a popped balloon as he makes the drinks and watches the other man bat His hands away when He tries to pay for the coffees.

A few weeks after that, He comes in at his usual time, looking unusually bedraggled and red-eyed. When Blaine makes his drink, he writes 'Courage! :)' under His name and is rewarded with a watery smile that has his heart in palpations for the rest of the day.

(When He comes back two weeks later looking jubilent with the same tall man [Blaine thinks he looks like some sort of rodent] and a ring on his finger, talking about how they're going to be moving out of the city... It had no correlation to Blaine quitting the next day and throwing himself into his theater studies. Within five years he'll be one of the most in-demand actors on Broadway and have no comment on his personal life.)

2. A Song.

Kurt is hurrying down the busy sidewalk when the strains of a guitar catch his ear.

Buskers are not uncommon in the city, and usually he just goes on by. But this time he stops, trying to find the source of the music.

The guitarist was just noodling and still drawing a small group of listeners. Kurt finds himself just behind a middle-aged woman who's listening to the music with a dreamy look on her face. Which Kurt is sure he mimics a second later when he actually looks at the guitar player.

The man looks up after a moment, the late-afternoon sun catching in his dark curls and bright smile. He scans the crowd for a moment, searching for something. Kurt realizes that his eyes are the color of warm honey and that they've met with his. Kurt flushes as the man's grin widens.

The man plucks out a few notes before finding a rhythm. The soft acoustic sound of the guitar is soothing, the notes floating over the crowd. The man begins to sing, and if Kurt were a swooning teenager he would have collapsed into a puddle of goo. As it is his knees still feel a little wobbly.

The guitarist had switched the pronouns from the original, and his smooth tenor growled against the notes in a way that had half the crowd swooning.

_He'll turn the music on you_  
_You won't have to think twice_  
_He's pure as New York snow_  
_He's got Bette Davis eyes_

__Kurt is spellbound for the few minutes the song plays out in.

As the last few chords fade out, the crowd bursts into applause, making Kurt jump. He'd nearly forgotten that other people were there. The phone in his hand buzzes suddenly as the guitarist takes his bows.

Kurt walks away, hitting answer on his phone.

"Hey, babe...yes, I'm on my way home now. Mmmhmmm, sure I'll stop on the way... Love you too. See you soon."

He never sees the warm-honey eyes searching the crowd as he goes.

(The man with the dark curls, silky voice, and honey eyes will later become famous for his songs of finding and losing love in small moments. Kurt never makes the connection to the famous singer and the street performer he saw so long ago. He buys every cd and listens to them until his husband warns him that he'll wear out the disks.)

3. Never Was

Kurt Hummel grows up in Lima, Ohio and gets out as fast as he can. He runs to New York- a place he thinks will be a haven. He thrives there for a couple years before being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Blaine Anderson also grows up in Ohio, and gets out a fast as he can. He is older than Kurt Hummel, by several years, and leaves New York a year before the city can even know of such a person existing. He teaches in California, content in the cool rains and warm sun and busy life. He's visting New York for a friends wedding when there is a commotion just down the block from where he is.

He runs to the source of the shouting and learns that a student had been hit by a moving vehicle when he pushed the woman in front of him out of the way. Blaine could already hear faint sirens on the way.

Somehow he finds himself right in front of the injured boy. He's blinking slowly, and looks like a marionette with cut strings. Blaine might not have extensive medical training, but he knows that the odds of this boy living are slim to none.

Blaine Anderson holds Kurt Hummel's hand and sings as the younger man dies on the dirty streets of New York.

(The woman that Kurt Hummel pushed out of the way was on her way to a doctor's appointment to confirm that she was pregnant. She had miscarried three times before and desperately wanted a child. She names her son Kurt.

Blaine was haunted by the experience and wrote a symphony inspired by it that he hid away from the world. After his death, _For The Unnamed Boy_ became one of the most beloved pieces of music literature.)

4. Nursing Home

They like to sit peacefully in the sunroom, papery hand resting together.

One like to simply sit and bask in the sun with their face tipped back, while the other likes to knit. The peaceful click-clack of the needles chimes in neatly with the soft creak-cracking of the rocking chairs.

They only met once they were here. One is 88 and the other is 89. They have lived through many changes in the world around them and are content to sit back a watch the world play itself out now. One has been married before, his husband dying years ago and always spoken of fondly. They flirt outrageously with each other and make the nurses giggle with bad jokes. One sold sheet music for a while and the other had had a brief career as a rollerskating waiter at a drive-through.

They never really get married- both claim that it's too much trouble for what time they have left. They do have a small commitment ceremony in front of the other residents, and as far as everyone is concerned, they're husbands.

(One dies two weeks before the other. Their families make sure to bury them side-by-side.)

5. A Staircase.

"Hi, um, can I ask you a question? I'm new here."


End file.
